- From: Mark Johnson <mjohnson@enteract.com>
- Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2001 12:12:08 -0500
- To: www-patentpolicy-comment@w3.org
W3C Patent Policy Working Group: Please add my voice to the many others who have voiced their dismay and concern about the W3C seeking to legitimize standards only implementable by a few and that have pointed out that RAND is not "Reasonable and Non Discriminatory". Instead RAND would discriminate against the software such as Linux, FreeBSD, Sendmail, BIND and Apache (and the community that built and maintains that software) that much of the Web and the Internet is currently built on. The argument that RAND would be avoided in "core" standards and used in the specifications of "higher-level" functionality is short sighted. Ten years ago hypertext and multimedia were not core uses of the Internet and were certainly higher-level functionality compared to the main applications of the Internet at that time such as email, ftp and telnet. It is vitally important to the success and future innovation on the Web that the W3C not lend it's endorsement to standards that would prevent projects such as Apache or Mozilla from implementing those standards that will be considered core technology in 10 years. Instead I urge the W3C to use it's considerable prestige to ensuring that the Web continues to be open for innovation by all. Sincerely, Mark Johnson
Received on Thursday, 11 October 2001 13:12:14 UTC